Cinnamon Spice Cookies with Goldschläger Icing

It's never out of season for gingerbread when it is this perfect! These cookies are packed with spices and laced with Goldschläger for an extra cinnamony kick. Topped with a simple powdered sugar icing and some silver sparkles its enough to make you feel like royalty, even if its just Wednesday night in your PJs!

Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian readers! Like pretty much every holiday this year, my country's 153rd birthday is passing with relatively little fanfare - even our neighbours who usually go all out with fireworks aren't planning anything. In addition to Canada Day, today also marks my blog's birthday - a whopping 13 years old! I still can't believe I've been documenting my cooking adventures for that long, and this blog has followed me through a whole mess of life journeys - five rounds of schooling, multiple jobs, relationships, losses of family and pets and multiple medical segues.

I want to just take a moment, before diving into my celebratory recipe (from our provincial liquor store) to thank everyone who has supported me over these years, including all the sponsors who gave me a chance, the various publishers who collaborated with me, my family, friends and the blogger community at large. You have all helped me become the cook I am today, and while I may not be the most regular writer, being part of this community of like-minded foodies showed me I could belong somewhere. I plan to keep this bad boy (or girl) going for as long as I can, especially now that my team of taste-testers has grown to include both N and my sister's boyfriend D.

Moving on to why most of you are here - these cookies! While I admit they are not your traditional "summer" fare, around here cookies are always welcome - and with gatherings beginning to open up again, we always have some sort of treat on hand. Keeping in the celebratory theme, I dipped into the (often forgotten) liquor cabinet to make these, based on a Courvoisier gingerbread recipe I had clipped out of the LCBO magazine at Christmastime and never got around to making it. Instead of the brandy, I opted for the opulent, spicy Goldschläger, which infused the cookies with a heady dose of cinnamon and helped the cookies crisp (as the alcohol evaporates faster than water). Mixing the dough brought back memories of both the holidays as well as my whole debacle building that castle three years ago (never again) - though if you wanted to build a structure with this dough you most certainly could.

The cookies smelled fantastic and were a breeze to whip up (hello, no waiting for butter to soften!) but looked a little plain and brown - not bad for an everyday tea or snack break, but not nearly enough for a celebration! So, while the cookies cooled, I set about making a simple icing with one important twist - another dose of Goldschläger. The alcohol served two purposes here - one, it allowed the icing to harden faster, given the evaporation of alcohol, and two, the little gold flakes in the liquid added an extra touch of sparkle to the icing. To gild  the lily, I topped the iced cookies with gold and silver sparkle sprinkles, though it's 100% optional. After the icing set, the cookies could be stacked and stored in an airtight container, although they lasted about three days here due to some hungry ghosts sneaking into the cookie jar!

Happy Canada Day, Happy (almost) 4th of July, and happy end to the first half of 2020. Fingers crossed that everyone stays safe, happy, and well this summer, and thanks again for the support all this time!

Cinnamon Spice Cookies with Goldschläger Icing

Adapted from the LCBO Food & Drink Magazine

Makes ~30

½ unsalted butter, melted
½ cup dark brown sugar
2 tbsp fancy molasses
3 tbsp Goldschläger
1 egg

½ tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon (I personally like Vietnamese but use your favourite)

½ tsp allspice

½ tsp salt

1 cup flour

1 cup spelt flour

Icing

2 ½ cups sifted icing sugar

1 tbsp honey

1/4 cup Goldschläger

Gold cake sprinkles or dragées, to decorate

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the butter, sugar, molasses, Goldschläger, egg, spices and salt.
2. Stir in the flours until well incorporated and a fairly stiff dough forms (similar to sugar cookie dough).
3. Wrap well in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
   
4. Heat the oven to 275°F and line cookie sheets with parchment (I don't recommend silpat for these, they don't get as crisp).
   
5. Remove the dough from the fridge and let stand 10 minutes to slightly soften.
6. Roll out the dough into a rough rectangle about 1/4" thick.
7. Use a pizza cutter or a sharp knife to cut into diamonds or squares, then place pieces ½" apart on the sheets.
8. Bake for 25 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through baking.
9. Turn off the oven and let the cookies sit inside for 15 minutes before removing from the oven and cooling completely on the sheets.
10. Whisk together the icing ingredients and spoon over each cookie. When icing is tacky, but not super wet, sprinkle with the gold cake sprinkles or place the dragées as desired. Let set for 6 hours and enjoy!